How the major stock indexes fared Thursday

It's only been a day, but November on Wall Street is already looking a lot better than October.

Strong economic data and corporate news converged Thursday to give U.S. stocks their best day since mid-September. Positive signs about the job market and higher auto and retail sales reports pushed stock futures up before the market opened. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 100 points the first half hour of trading. At 10, two more strong reports came out and pushed the Dow up as much as 177 points. It fell back some, but held a steady gain for the rest of the day.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 136.16 points, or 1 percent, to close at 13,232.62.